UNESCO Chairs in Children and Youth and the Lumos Foundation:  Supporting Families – Alternatives to Institutionalisation NUI Galway hosted an event yesterday (October 16) that showcased the results of the collaboration project between international children’s rights organisation Lumos, founded by J.K. Rowling, and UNESCO Chairs in the area of Children and Youth at NUI Galway and Pennsylvania State University. The partnership is working to increase global momentum to transform the lives of children separated from their families in orphanages. The three-year project (2015-2018), funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies (Ireland), involved training 97 experienced child care and protection trainers across 14 countries who then shared their expertise with over 14,000 practitioners through workshops, training courses, conferences, events and individual sessions, with a further 19,000 practitioners reached through articles and blogs. An estimated eight million children worldwide live in institutions and so-called orphanages, though at least 80% have living parents, most of whom could look after them with some support. Lumos is an international foundation working to end the institutionalisation of children around the world by transforming education, health and social care systems to move towards providing family-based and community care. The partnership is based on a number of shared goals including finding practical, ‘real world’ and sustainable ways to support families and children, particularly those who have been marginalised, to stay together in the community, and empowering children and families to play a meaningful role in changing attitudes and practices.  Professor Pat Dolan, Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway, said: “Our work with Lumos is built on a mutual objective that governments, communities and professionals begin to move away from reliance on institutionalisation as the default solution for vulnerable children and instead, focus their resources, capacity and skills on community-based solutions.” Alex Christopoulos, Lumos’ Deputy CEO, said: “The joint programme between Lumos and the UNESCO Chairs in Children and Youth, kindly supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies (Ireland), has played a pioneering role in helping to understand how child care and protection systems can be reformed in different contexts and cultures. With the shared goal that no child should be in an institution, the programme explored the role practitioners, communities, families and children and youth play in reforming systems – moving away from an institutional one size fits all approach, to building the frameworks, skills and resources needed to enable children to flourish in families.” The event featured a documentary that focuses on the journey embarked upon by frontline practitioners undertaking de-institutionalisation. The film, Together we Stared at the Moon, produced by Irish filmmaker Niamh Heery, set in Bulgaria and Colombia, features the stories of practitioners who are working with alternatives to institutional care in their countries.    The partnership is part of a number of initiatives under the Global Network of UNESCO Chairs in Children, Youth and Communities. The UNESCO Chair programme offers a unique platform to raise issues at the highest levels of policy.   For further information on Lumos, visit:  https://wearelumos.org/ To view a promo of the film Together we Stared at the Moon, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=9w3h1kH8jng. -Ends-

Dr Breandán Mac Suibhne, a Fellow with NUI Galway’s Moore Institute, has been shortlisted for the Royal Irish Academy’s inaugural Michel Déon Prize for non-fiction for his book The End of Outrage: Post-Famine Adjustment in Rural Ireland.   Six books have been shortlisted from over 240 titles nominated through the Royal Irish Academy’s website, and the judging panel made their choice from the eligible titles. In shortlisting the titles they were looking for originality, quality of writing and contribution to knowledge and/or public debate. The €10,000 prize for the winning author is sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs. The author will also have the opportunity to deliver ‘The Michel Déon Lecture’ in France in early 2019.  Focused on a small community in the west of Ireland, The End of Outrage: Post-Famine Adjustment in Rural Irelandtells the story of schoolmaster who turns informer on a secret society – ostensibly in order to protect a farmer, James Gallagher, who had acquired land from his neighbours in the immediate aftermath of the Famine. It is at once a history and a memoir as the author’s forebears were among those who had lost land to Gallagher, and Dr Mac Suibhne probes how his own people came to terms with their loss. The End of Outrage was The Irish Times Irish Non-fiction Book of the Year in 2017, and in 2018 the American Conference for Irish Studies awarded it the Donnelly Prize for Books in History and Social Science. Congratulating Dr Mac Suibhne on the nomination, Professor Daniel Carey, Director of the Moore Institute at NUI Galway, said: “The recognition conferred by this nomination is well-deserved. The End of Outrage is a remarkable achievement – a brilliantly written and researched book that gives a hugely compelling account. As a work of style and storytelling it is worthy of Michel Déon. The connection with NUI Galway is also apt since Michel Déon was a great supporter of the library and donated thousands of French books to the collection over many years.” To reflect the work and interests of the French writer Michel Déon, who made Ireland his home from the 1970s until his death in 2016, the eligible categories for the prize were: autobiography, biography, cultural studies, history, literary studies, philosophy, travel. Authors of any nationality currently living on the island of Ireland who had published a non-fiction book in the period July 2016 to July 2018 were eligible.  The winner will be announced at an event in early December 2018. For full details of the prize visit www.ria.ie/michel-deon-prize. -Ends-

NUI Galway’s School of Law will host a one-day conference on Medical Negligence Litigation at the University on Saturday, 20 October. The conference, aimed at medical and legal practitioners, will address key issues in medical negligence including how to defend medical negligence claims; how to ensure that you have received informed consent; recent statutory developments on candour and open disclosure; and key issues in providing expert evidence. Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, former President of the Irish High Court will deliver the keynote address. He will be joined by an expert panel of speakers including: Margaret Muldowney, solicitor; Ursula Connolly, Lecturer at the School of Law, NUI Galway; Damien Tansey, solicitor. and Stephen Kearns, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Bon Secours Hospital, Galway, who is also a co-organiser of the conference. Law lecturer and co-organiser of the event, Ursula Connolly, said that the conference is timely given the recent scandals to hit the health system: “Recent events have highlighted the importance of patient safety and open disclosure and we are delighted to have been able to bring together an expert panel to discuss these issues. The conference organisers are particularly honoured to have the keynote address delivered by Mr Justice Kearns, one of the leading judges in the area of medical negligence.”   After a panel discussion, conference delegates will have the opportunity to engage with the experts through a Q&A session.    The conference will take place in Room HBB GO19, Human Biology Building, NUI Galway from 9am to 4.30pm. Five Continuous Professional Development hours will also be granted for attendance at this conference. Advance booking is required and delegates can register at www.conference.ie.    -Ends-